Attitudes of Chinese nurses towards self-help groups in Hong Kong

Abstract

During the last twenty years, there have been numerous publications concerned with the proliferation of self-help groups in western countries. In Hong Kong it is only in recent years that there has been an increased awareness of the promotion and development of self-help groups. With the establishment of Hospital Authority, many major hospitals have set up Patient Resources Centres to facilitate the establishment of self-help groups in individual hospitals. Self-help groups are proposed as a complementary adjunct to the professional response to needed human service. Some commentators have noted considerable antagonism and distrust between the professional and self-help groups. Others have noted that nurses can play different roles with self-help groups, such as making referral, helping to develop a group, offering suggestions or giving information. This paper aims to identify attitudes, knowledge and roles of nurses regarding self-help groups in Hong Kong. Questionnaires were given to one hundred and fifty registered nurses of various ranks working in different hospitals. One hundred and two completed questionnaires were returned. Most respondents perceived that the effectiveness of self-help groups is high or very high. On average, the respondents referred twenty patients to self-help groups but fifty per cent of the nurses have not referred any patients to any self-help groups. The reason they gave for non-referral is that they knew no self-help group in the area of their practice. Some nurses stated that they have little knowledge about self-help groups and do not know how to refer patients to them. The fact that respondents seldom assumed roles for which they were attitudinal ready may reflect the lack of knowledge and skills of nurses. The paper also explores the possible problems and advantages of self-help groups as perceived by the nurses.